


The Noblewoman's Smile

by toushindai (WallofIllusion)



Category: Baccano!
Genre: F/F, Oral Sex, PWP, Pining, Seduction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-10
Updated: 2015-04-10
Packaged: 2018-03-22 03:47:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3713770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WallofIllusion/pseuds/toushindai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carla has desired her mistress for so long that she's forgotten it might be possible to have her. Lucrezia, on the other hand, has not forgotten that possibility for a moment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Noblewoman's Smile

**Author's Note:**

> Predates the events in Lotto Valentino by a year or two, I suppose. This is not the Carla who would yell at Lucrezia (in perfect keigo)... _yet_.

“Carla, dear, could you help me take my hair down?”

Lucrezia took a seat at her mirror and Carla stepped forward. “Yes, milady.”

“The rest of you, I don’t need right now.” Lucrezia sent a brief smile to the rest of her guards through the mirror, and they saluted and filed out. Carla watched their reflections retreat; once they’d shut the door, she looked back at her mistress.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Lucrezia teased gently, and rested her chin on her folded hands. As Carla began tugging out the pins that held her golden hair in place, she smiled to herself. “You’re always so quiet, darling. However am I supposed to know what you’re thinking?”

“I’m sure I’m not thinking anything milady need concern herself with,” Carla answered.

At this precise moment, Carla was unable to think of anything but Lucrezia’s beauty. She had been near her mistress before, of course, but now she was so close that she could almost taste Lucrezia’s peach perfume on the back of her throat, and watching each twist of her hair tumble down her neck as she removed the pins was… mesmerizing. Lucrezia gathered each slipped curl and pulled them towards her front, combing her hair idly with her fingers and baring the back of her neck each time. Carla had to focus her thoughts very carefully to stifle the desire to trace the ridges of her neck (with her fingertips, or with—she had to focus her thoughts very carefully indeed). Whenever she shifted her gaze and met Lucrezia’s eyes in the mirror, she was smiling as though she had some secret, clever plan—but this was how she always smiled. Carla began removing the pins that held a line of peonies atop her head.

When she removed the last peony, Lucrezia raised a hand before Carla could set it on the vanity, and Carla gave it to her instead. Lucrezia buried her nose in it and inhaled deeply as if entranced by its scent, all with that same smile. For a moment, Carla found it very difficult to think anything at all. Then she swallowed hard and straightened her posture. “Is there anything else I can do for you, Lady Lucrezia?”

“Mmm… the buttons,” Lucrezia answered. “They’re ever so hard to handle on my own.”

A line of thirty tiny pearls ran down Lucrezia’s spine. Obediently, Carla began undoing them one by one; and this time, she did not dare to turn her eyes away from her task, lest she find herself fixated not on the dress but on the ever-lengthening glimpse of Lucrezia’s bare skin. By the time Lucrezia shifted forward in her seat so that Carla could undo the button just above her tailbone, Carla’s fingers were shaking in a very peculiar way, and her face felt warm.

“Thank you, darling.” Lucrezia raised her arms and stretched, and barely caught the front of her dress before it slipped out of place. “I’m going to change, but don’t leave just yet, hmm?”

“As you wish.”

Lucrezia vanished behind her screen and Carla stood at attention a few feet away. Mercifully, Lucrezia remained silent, giving Carla a chance to catch her breath. Her head was swimming with thoughts, none of which were very proper and all of which made her heart quiver in her chest. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw that sliver of Lucrezia’s back as if it were printed on her eyelids. She did not do a very good job of catching her breath.

Even if she had, it would have been for naught when Lucrezia emerged. She had changed into a nightgown of impossibly sheer material which clung to the curves of her body. Carla snapped to a sharper attention and directed her gaze at spot over Lucrezia’s shoulder before she could fully notice the dark circle at the center of each breast, the darker triangle further down. The edges of her vision burned.

“Is there anything else I can do for you, Lady Lucrezia?” she asked, hoping that the tremor in her voice was only audible to her.

“Yes,” her mistress answered, serene and decisive. “You can let me seduce you.”

At that, Carla nearly forgot herself; she started despite her stiff posture and looked at Lucrezia’s face with eyes as wide as saucers. Before she could formulate any kind of response, Lucrezia covered her mouth with one hand and laughed.

“Carla, _darling_ , you look so surprised! Surely you aren’t really? Everyone out there knows what’s going on in here, don’t you think?”

She gestured towards the door of her bedroom with the same hand, and Carla gaped at her. Yes, she supposed that if she had been among the guards sent out of the room while one remained behind, she would have drawn her conclusions and thought little more of it, but something had kept her from making that leap now.

“Now, I’m not asking you to make it _too_ easy. Some men, you know, all I have to do is touch their arm or the small of their back and they spring _right_ to attention.” An upward flick of her index finger made her meaning rather clearer than Carla required. “But you are at least open to the possibility, aren’t you?”

Carla cleared her throat and straightened her posture once more. She could feel that her whole face was flushed. “It would be completely improper.”

Another laugh from Lucrezia. “What have I ever done to give you the impression that I care about what is _proper_? Whatever it was, I repent of it.” She took a step forward, and Carla’s breath caught in her throat. “If you weren’t interested, then yes, this would be _very_ improper of me, but you’ve wanted me for quite some time, haven’t you?”

Carla swallowed.

She’d wanted her mistress since the first time she’d seen her.

It had been years ago, while Carla was still in training; she’d seen the noblewoman practicing her sword-fighting. Desire had swelled through her like a wave of fire, hot and swift and far too sudden to be conveniently mistaken for something else. Had she been a bit more sensible, she might have sought a post elsewhere and let distance counteract the desire, but before long she found herself serving the very woman who left her shaking with need.

It was with a sharp twist of shame in her stomach that she soon realized that she was not at all singular in this manner. It was a common story when it came to Lucrezia de Dormentaire. The first time she watched her mistress pull a man into her bedroom, eyes shining with delight, jealousy had hit her so strongly that she nearly choked on it. And again, the first time it was a woman, and the first time it was one of her fellow guards: jealousy strong enough to turn her stomach, and an uncharacteristically petty hatred. Over time, the sheer volume of Lucrezia’s dalliances soothed the jealousy into a dull ache rather than a sharp one. But her desire had never wavered once.

Lucrezia was standing very close to her now, her eyes sparkling as if she knew the whole story. “Will you admit it, or do I have to try a little harder?” she teased. “Of course, if I ordered you to tell the truth, the words would just come pouring out of your mouth, wouldn’t they, darling?”

Carla’s knees trembled. The heat between her legs that she’d somehow ignored before was undeniable now, and she had an intoxicating vision of confessing, of abandoning herself to the easy habit of obeying Lucrezia’s whims. Lucrezia was near enough to kiss, now, and Carla knew that whatever her mistress asked, she would grant.

But she didn’t ask anything. Instead she slipped behind Carla and looped her arms around Carla’s waist. Her touch was like fire. “There’s something else I’m curious about first,” she murmured, and at the touch of her breath against Carla’s ear, it was all Carla could do to keep from whimpering. “I want to know how many layers I have to get rid of before you stop holding yourself like a soldier.”

And with that, she reached for the top button of Carla’s jacket and undid it, making sure to brush her hand against Carla’s chest in the process. Carla stood stock still, no longer out of any sense of propriety but because desire had so invaded her mind that she could think of nothing else to do. Humming to herself, Lucrezia slid her hand down to the lower button and undid it; with a long sigh of release Carla let her slide the jacket down her arms, let it hit the floor. Her heart was pounding. Lucrezia hooked her chin over her shoulder.

“Not quite yet?” she asked, resting her hands just below Carla’s stomach, not low enough to be obscene but tantalizingly close to it.

Carla struggled to breathe evenly. “Lady Lucrezia…”

She kissed the space just behind Carla’s ear. “How about just ‘Lucrezia’ tonight?”

Somehow Carla managed to nod, though she couldn’t bring herself to say it just yet, and anyway Lucrezia’s hands were near her throat now, tugging at the knot of her cravat. It came undone easily, and Lucrezia toyed with the long strip of white cloth.

“It would make a nice blindfold,” she mused.

Carla’s breath caught in her throat with something that felt like disappointment.

“Oh my,” Lucrezia remarked. “That wasn’t a happy sound at all. What’s the matter, sweetheart? You can tell me.”

It was close enough to an order that the answer tripped out of her. “I don’t want to be blindfolded, milady.”

“No?” She drew the syllable out with a slow playfulness and asked the next question as if she already knew the answer. “And why is that?”

Carla shivered with her proximity and with the boldness of the answer on her lips. “I want to see you,” she whispered.

“Oh!” There was more delight than genuine surprise in Lucrezia’s voice. She released the cloth, and it fluttered to the floor. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

She took a sudden step back. Where her warmth had been pressed against Carla’s back, Carla was left feeling chilled and alone. But she heard the soft rustle of cloth once more, and then Lucrezia drawled a lazy, “About~ face!”

Carla’s body obeyed the order automatically.

Lucrezia had shed her nightgown.

And before Carla could find some safe point in the distance to focus her sight on once more, Lucrezia had snaked one hand around the back of her neck and guided her vision down her body. Down over full breasts, over the tangle of hair that hid her secret places, over long white legs. And when she was satisfied that Carla had seen enough, she pulled her close and into an inescapable kiss. Carla’s eyes slipped closed and it was far too easy to moan and be lost in the soft pressure of her mistress’s lips. She only realized that she had reached for Lucrezia’s waist when Lucrezia answered her touch by pulling closer with an appreciative hum. Her own hand cupped Carla’s rear. It was a miracle that Carla remained standing.

When Lucrezia finally broke the kiss, her cheeks were touched with pink. She traced a finger down the buttoned front of Carla’s shirt. “Shall I relieve you of the rest of your clothing, or would you like to take care of that yourself?”

In the flurry of motion that followed, Carla didn’t know what answer she had given or whether she’d made a decision at all. But at its conclusion, she found herself spread out on the bed, stripped naked, with Lucrezia kneeling over her hips. Her heart raced. Still the edges of her vision burned with the sight of Lucrezia’s breasts, her bare shoulders—but right now, she couldn’t take her eyes off Lucrezia’s face. Her eyes shone with the same eager awe that Carla felt. She trailed a hand down Carla’s front once more, her pale skin almost luminous against the warm brown of Carla’s.

“Pretty Carla,” she breathed. “You’re just as lovely out of that uniform as you are in it.”

Carla moved along with her touch, breathless with yearning. “Th-thank you, Lady Lucrezia.” Her mistress raised one eyebrow to chide her, and Carla swallowed. “Lucrezia,” she corrected herself, the lack of title tasting like something forbidden on her tongue.

Lucrezia smiled. “Perfect,” and cupped Carla’s left breast as if in reward.

“Ah…!” Carla arched into the sensation, clutching at the sheets to keep herself from doing what she really wanted, which was to reach for Lucrezia’s skin. And then, before, she’d caught her breath, Lucrezia reached down and pressed two fingers between Carla’s legs, and Carla _yelped_.

“Oh, Carla,” Lucrezia said in awe, “you’re _soaking_.”

“Y-yes, milady,” Carla stammered. She’d been growing wetter and wetter ever since Lucrezia sent the rest of the guards out of the room, and the knowledge that that had been Lucrezia’s aim only made her dizzy with need. She couldn’t believe this was happening. It seemed impossible, a fever dream—but she couldn’t have dreamt up the relentless skill with which Lucrezia stroked her. It was far beyond anything Carla had ever managed on her own with shame and secrecy slowing her fingers. Uninhibited by either of those concerns, Lucrezia was voracious, and Carla was breathlessly trapped in the tide of her appetites. She clamped her hands over her mouth to stifle embarrassingly loud moans. But in a moment, Lucrezia’s free hand pulled them away.

“Let me hear you, sweetheart.”

The order was almost redundant as she teased a finger around Carla’s entrance and a long moan escaped her. She was writhing with every touch, and when she collected herself enough to open her eyes, she found that Lucrezia was watching her with an avid fascination. Carla whimpered.

“Lucrez—a-aah!”

Her mistress had twirled one finger around Carla’s most sensitive spot just as she’d tried to say her name, and Carla found herself pumping her hips against Lucrezia’s out of pure need. Lucrezia ground back, her eyes narrowed in pleasure, but her composure on the whole better-maintained than Carla’s.

“Carla, dear Carla,” she murmured, sing-song. “You’ve wanted this, haven’t you? Have you thought of me at night and played with yourself, just like this?”

“Ye-es—ohh…” Carla was too lost in pleasure to even think of denying it. She’d stoically pretended not to hear her fellow guards’ boasts about what they’d done with their wives, or with prostitutes, only to recall their words later in bed and imagine Lucrezia’s fingers, Lucrezia’s mouth, tracing greedily over her skin in the ways they’d spoken of. She’d known it was wrong. She’d known that if she’d dared to lust after any other charge in such a way, if she’d been found out, then prison would have been the best she could hope for. Still she could not keep herself from imagining it, even as Lucrezia sent her away in favor of someone else night after night after night. And now—

Now Lucrezia pulled her hand away suddenly, leaving Carla panting with need. When Carla looked at her, she was smiling a secret smile, as if waiting for something.

“Milady?” Carla ventured between heavy breaths. She reached out and settled her hands onto Lucrezia’s thighs, stroking gently. “Is there something I can do for you?”

An echo of the question she’d asked before, but now the meaning was dramatically different. Lucrezia chuckled as if recognizing the irony and shifted once under Carla’s touch, but then she lifted Carla’s hands away from her legs. “You don’t have to do anything,” she answered. “Just lie there and let me have some fun with you. I’ve been ever so cruel to tease you for so long.”

“Tease me?” Carla repeated, not comprehending.

“By making you wait,” Lucrezia explained, sliding back on the bed and taking hold of Carla’s thighs. “You’ve been watching me so desperately, darling. I wanted to know how long you would wait, but you never wavered once, did you? You’re utterly devoted to me.”

She punctuated her last sentence with a swift slide of her hands inward, towards Carla’s core, and Carla could only gasp out, “A-ah, yes…!”

“You’d do anything for me. Anything I asked, without question,” Lucrezia continued, massaging her legs, eyes glittering. Pushed beyond the ability to turn her moans into words, Carla could only nod. “Carla, darling Carla, you’re so beautifully loyal and I’ve only ever repaid you by pretending I didn’t notice. Lift your hips, sweetheart, just a bit.”

Carla obeyed, but almost dropped them again when Lucrezia leaned over her suddenly, her breasts hanging a mere inch from her face. But she was only retrieving a pillow from the head of the bed, which she slipped under Carla’s hips. Carla sank down onto it, exhaling shakily, hardly daring to know what was coming next.

Then, all at once, Lucrezia shifted so that she was lying on her stomach and pressed her face flush against Carla’s inner thigh. “Let me thank you properly,” she said, the vibrations humming up Carla’s spine, and then she turned her head and Carla felt her tongue. A torturously slow lick first, pressing her folds open and lapping up her wetness. It elicited a long, high moan from Carla that changed to a stuttering whimper as the tip of Lucrezia’s tongue drew a circle around her clit. Her head was rolled back on her shoulders and all the muscles of her body were tense and singing with pleasure. She could barely form a complete thought beyond the knowledge of how long, how desperately she had wanted this. Her mistress continued her confident administrations, now licking and sucking on Carla’s folds, now burying her nose among them and inhaling with deep satisfaction. With one hand, she reached up and sought Carla’s hands; finding them, she pulled them down to the top of her head. Carla wound her fingers into Lucrezia’s hair and pressed her face more fully against her. She was rewarded with a long, heartfelt “Oooh…” and a renewed enthusiasm from her mistress.

“L-Lucre… zia…” she panted, with no idea what she meant to plead for.

But Lucrezia must have known, because her tongue was suddenly focused on her clit again, flicking rapidly, and Carla felt two fingers slide into her and curl and hit something inside of her that she hadn’t even known existed. She gasped and her hips pushed upward, and Lucrezia moved with her as flawlessly as if she’d been expecting it. She kept licking at Carla’s clit, kept curling her fingers inside of her, and it was all Carla could to do hold onto her hair and receive and receive. And then release hit her, swelling and bursting within her all at once, and over her own cries she heard Lucrezia murmuring, “Carla, _Carla_ , _oh_ —!” as she, too, arched with release. Carla’s sex throbbed around her fingers, and Lucrezia kept lapping at her wetness until she finally sank limply into the bed, mind reeling and pulse beating throughout her body. For a time, Lucrezia stayed where she was, her head nestled between Carla’s legs; then she pulled her fingers out and tapped Carla’s hand gently.

“Hurts, darling.”

“Oh!” Belatedly, Carla realized she was still gripping her mistress’s hair and released it. “I’m s…”

But she didn’t have the breath, the composure, to finish her apology, and Lucrezia only chuckled. She kissed her way up Carla’s body, concluding with a gentle kiss on the lips. Tasting herself there, Carla shivered. Lucrezia settled next to her, arm draped across her stomach and legs intertwined.

“Do you realize you called me ‘Lady Lucrezia’ as you came?” Another kiss. “You silly dear.” Another, to assure her there was no resentment. One more, this time initiated by Carla, and when they pulled back from that one, Lucrezia’s eyes shone with adoration. “Was I as good as you’ve imagined?”

“Yes, milady,” Carla breathed, and stroked Lucrezia’s cheek. “Better.” She gazed at her mistress, awed again at the extent of her beauty. Lucrezia’s skin was flushed and dewy, and her _eyes_ , her sapphire-blue eyes watched Carla unwaveringly, filled with a pure joy.

“I love you,” Lucrezia said, and they were the only words Carla had ever needed to hear.

 


End file.
